Zimbabwe's worsening electricity shortages mean power is often only available for a few hours in the middle of the night.
Photo: AFP In this file photo, a Zimbabwean family plays cards in Harare after power cuts, which hit most parts of the country.
It is just one aspect of the country's dire economic difficulties as official inflation nears 100 percent and supplies of daily essentials such as bread and petrol regularly run short.
Zimbabwe - where the economy has recently lurched into a fresh crisis - introduced rotational power cuts of up to 19 hours a day earlier this year, forcing many to do their ironing or cooking in the dead of night.
Last month the country introduced rolling electricity power cuts known as "load-shedding" due to low water levels at the Kariba hydro-power station, as well as the country's crumbling power infrastructure and lack of funds to pay for energy imports.
The ZESA power utility said cuts would be imposed between 5:00 am and 10:00 am and 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm, but they often last longer.
Energy minister Fortune Chasi has pledged the outages would be reduced, and urged consumers to pay their bills to enable ZESA to buy more power from neighbouring countries.
"We will be turning the corner pretty soon," Chasi told a post-Cabinet briefing this week, adding that ZESA had just paid a $20-million debt to neighbouring South Africa.
South Africa's state-owned energy company Eskom on Friday denied the money had been paid.
After Robert Mugabe was ousted from power in 2017, many Zimbabweans hoped that their country's long economic deline would be reversed under his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa promised to end the country's international isolation, attract investors and create growth that could fund the country's shattered public services.
But the economy has declined further, with shop prices rocketing at the fastest rate since hyperinflation wiped out savings and pensions ten years ago.
This week, Zimbabwe in theory ended the use of US dollars and other foreign currencies that have been the official legal tender since the Zimbabwe dollar was rendered worthless in 2009.
The government's surprise decision fuelled further confusion and uncertainty.
